HOUSTON – Northwestern State takes the court on Thursday looking for a similar offensive, but different defensive performance than it had in the last match.
 
On Saturday against McNeese, the Lady Demons (2-6, 0-6) matched a season low with 13 attack errors and had their third-best hitting percentage of the season, seeing more of the consistency that head coach Sean Kiracofe is looking for. Unfortunately, it was the part of the game that had been consistent all season, the defense and passing, that failed to produce in the 3-0 loss to the Cowgirls. 
 
"A lot of our struggles came from when we were out of system and our outsides or right sides are having to take difficult swings and do something smart with the ball," Kiracofe said. "Our hitting percentages across the board were better than what they had been, so we managed those instances better."
 
The Lady Demons look to respond against a solid Houston Baptist team on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. from HBU's Sharp Gym.
 
A season-low 41 digs and season-high 12 reception errors, just the second match in the past three seasons with 10 or more, presented McNeese the open door it needed to take the match. The near-certain defensive anomaly the match was, does not expect to become a trend for the defensive-minded Lady Demons.
 
"When our serve receive passing kicks back in like we expect it to, it's going to put us in positions to be right there close to winning sets and pushing the match further along that way," Kiracofe said.
 
While the Lady Demons found just 26 kills in the match, the decrease in the number of errors from matches past was the biggest step for the team, directly following consecutive 20-error matches. Every attackers error count decreased from the first match of the week to the second as NSU continues to iron out more consistent offense.
 
Freshman Audrey Quesnel had six kills for the third straight match and the fourth time in the past five, hitting .375 against McNeese on 16 error-free swings. She has provided some offensive consistency to a team that has had just one double-digit kill performance since the start of conference play – Darria Williams' career-best 14 against Southeastern La.
 
"It is purely a numbers thing because it was hard to watch the match and say that we were good offensively," Kiracofe said. "But from a numbers standpoint, as far as hitting percentages, it was one of our better matches. I think that comes from the work that we've done in practice over the past couple of weeks."
 
NSU travels to Houston Baptist (5-7, 4-2) looking for the defensive return to form and continued offensive progression against a team that boasts the best blocking numbers in the Southland Conference, just ahead of the Lady Demons.
 
The Lady Demons have done well all season not having attacks turned into points via the opponent blocks, the lowest average in the conference, but HBU leads the league at 2.7 blocks per set led by junior middle Ebonie Ballesteros.
 
HBU, like the Lady Demons, are an overall young squad, but have key players, and experience, in important positions. Mikayla Vivens and Morgan Dewyer, both preseason all-conference selections, along with Ballesteros lead a small but talented group of experienced returners on a young team.
 
"They're a lot like us in terms of their roster and losing some key pieces to early graduation but have more experience on the floor," Kiracofe said. "That's been able to carry them early on but I think it's going to be much better for us because it's a comparable team that is a little bit limited in what they have in terms of changes if things aren't working. 
 
"If we can take away something from their game they want to do they're not going to as easily be able to make a correction with a sub."